Travellers on Victoria Pass have had an early Christmas present with all lanes of traffic to reopen for the first time in three years.

The westbound slow lane at Victoria Pass, west of Mount Victoria, has been closed since July 2022 after two slopes were significantly damaged during extreme weather events that was later declared a natural disaster.

Repair work started in April 2025 with the aim of finishing before Christmas, however, hard-working crews have smashed that deadline with all highway lanes at Victoria Pass expected to reopen to traffic in the week of Monday November 10.

When the slopes were damaged by the heavy rain, extensive investigations determined it would be a complex engineering task to remediate the site. In March 2024, Victoria Pass and Berghofers Pass were added to the State Heritage Register, requiring further heritage permit applications to be lodged ahead of the remediation work.

Transport for NSW worked closely with Heritage NSW to minimise the impacts of construction on the heritage-listed corridor.

The long-term multimillion-dollar remediation project was funded under Natural Disaster Funding.

State Member for the Blue Mountains Trish Doyle welcomed the completion of the work at Victoria Pass.

Ms Doyle said it would be a great relief to Blue Mountains residents and benefit the many motorists travelling between Sydney and the Central West every day.

“It’s been a long time coming, but this was a mammoth task with geotechnical and other surveys needed, and it was important to get the job done right the first time,” Ms Doyle said.

“It means we can now return to two lanes heading westbound on Victoria Pass and ease traffic congestion, particularly during peak holiday times.”

“I’ve been told this is the long-term fix we need, so the road can better cope with future heavy rain events.

“I thank the crews for all their hard work and my community, who have shown great patience over the past three years, while waiting for this work to be finished.

“Our government worked hard to get these repairs prioritised after the election.”

Crews installed:

• 324 soil nails across the two slopes sites to improve their future resilience,
• Sprayed 890 square metres of ‘mock rock’ shotcrete on the slopes,
• Installed drape mesh to hold earth in place, and
• Fencing at the bottom of the slopes to catch falling debris.

“Guard rail installation is now also complete, and crews will return in coming months to asphalt some of the cracked pavement on the highway,” Ms Doyle added.

Transport crews have also taken advantage of full road closures over the past seven months to carry out vital culvert work to improve drainage during future heavy rain periods, and to carry out maintenance work such as water blasting to improve the safety of the road surface.

A separate project to permanently repair a slope beside the Great Western Highway on the eastern edge of Mount Victoria has also wrapped up.

That work included construction of an 80-metre long and five-metre high gabion basket retaining wall, drainage work including the construction of a new stormwater chute, and landscaping and revegetation of the slope with native plants.

For more information go to the Transport for NSW website.